Help with lighting issue please

My family recently built a house. The house we had before this one had only one room in the whole house with lighting fixtures built in to the ceiling. Every room in our new house has at least one light fixture in the ceiling. We thought that not having to have 'lamps' would be so great, but we really are not satisfied with the lighting in a few rooms. We had an allowance of 'can' lights so we spread them throughout the family room, kitchen, and the various hallways in the house. The cans light the rooms great. Our issue is some of the rooms just dont seem to be lit well enough. My biggest issue is that I can't find a fixture at any of the local big box home stores that will take more than 60 watt bulbs. 60 watt bulbs are weak in my opinion. You can have 20 of them in a room and still have a certain level of light that cant be improved. Why can't I find fixtures that take 2 100 watt bulbs? What options are there for me now that it would be a 'remodel' upgrade?

Thanks.

Mike W.

Reply to
Mike W.
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Try a lamp that sits on an end table or maybe a wall-mount light.

Reply to
Red Neckerson

clipped

I think the best chance of getting a real improvement would be to visit a lighting store that can address your situation and needs. Natural light, room colors, uses all are factors in making a choice. You can probably get a chandelier with 2 100's, but perhaps too hot for a ceiling fixture? Is your vision ok, or have special needs?

Reply to
Norminn

Not doing lamps again. We sold 14 lamps at our first garage sale in this house. We would go with paying someone to put can lights in after the fact before we go buy lamps again.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Mike W.

Red Neckers>>My family recently built a house. The house we had before this one had

Reply to
Mike W.

Yeah... we've discussed visiting a lighting consultant, but were afraid of the price. We have no special needs that we know of... we can't understand how 60 watt bulbs are enough for anyone so maybe we do have special needs.

Thanks. Mike W.

Norm> clipped

Reply to
Mike W.

Consider halogen lights. I took a ceramic socket -60W bulb out of a master closet during remodel. I added a three light halogen thingy- bob and have plenty of light now. How long do you spend in the hallways? My garage ceramic socket is next....

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

The issue is the decorative fixture. We want to maintain a nice look around the house. I haven't seen anything ceramic online. Can you point me to a link or something?

I don't spend a lot of time in the hallways... unfortunately we had no idea about this lighting issue until we moved in and the euphoria of a new house wore off. We still love the house, but the lightin in these few rooms annoys us. We can get by with it, but were hoping for a solution that was just replacing the light fixtures with other decorative ones that took larger wattage bulbs. As it stands we're talking about track lighting.

Thanks. Mike W.

Oren wrote:

Reply to
Mike W.

Zackly, I meant I removed a ceramic socket w/60W bub. Check (sample only) .....

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Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

Are you using reflector-backed bulbs or normal frosted round bulbs? I find canlights with just 35 or 50w throw a lot of light, if they are 120v reflector bulbs. Like the other poster, I have used 12v 50w halogens throughout much of the house, and they give a bunch of light. Visiting lighting galleries/stores is a great way to measure real as opposed to advertized light. Don't need to buy - just look, carefully. Once I found what I wanted, I ordered all the materials online, at significant discounts.

Reply to
Roger

There's a big difference between a 'lighting consultant' and going to your local electrical supply house or lighting store and getting suggestions. A lot of lighting stores have people who know more than you would ever think imaginable about lighting. Electrical supply houses usually have guys behind the counter who know a lot also. None of this will cost you any money, because they want your business. (Do not go in and pick their brain and then go to a crap store like Home Depot to buy.) If you take their suggestions, and also buy the quality they are selling, then you'll probably be happy with the results. Only install one fixture at first and keep the rest in the boxes. If you aren't happy with the results, they are easily returned.

Reply to
Bob

I suggest you consider the lamps you are putting in the fixtures. A good reflector lamp will put out a lot more light than a standard light. For the most light and less expense, I suggest Cf's That's compact florescent. You can find one that will put out twice the light you are getting now and use less electricity than you are now. They last longer as well.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Have you tried a CF? CF's can put out as much light as a 100 watt incandescent. But not draw or heat more than the 60 watter. The heat is the reason you do not put 2 100 watt bulbs in the ceiling. I put cans in my great room and kitchen during a remodel. I used 23 watt CF's in the kitchen. It looked like an operating room.

You mention nothing about the height of the ceilings. The higher you go over 8 feet the less likely that the cans will do specific task lighting, reading. The spacing and number of lights per room will have a lot to do with the amount of light.

There are trim assemblies that will reflect more of the light downward. They cost more that what you probably have. I suggest you find the manufacture of the fixtures you have and then check their web page. See what can be retro fitted to what is in the ceiling.

Reply to
SQLit

Compact Fluorescents (CF) bulbs allow you to put a higher wattage (brighter bulb) in the lower wattage rated fixture. They're about four times more efficient than an incandescent bulb, last much longer and energy companies often provide rebates.

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Reply to
RicodJour

In my experiance the ceiling fixtures provide enough light to navigate around furniture and get stuff from shelves and cabinets.

Reading lamps, desklamps , under cabinet lighting in the kitchen area all required.

Reply to
marks542004

the common "reading bulb" sold in the 1950's was often as high as 250 watts incandescent. now since then tv's and their reflection glare and using the computer from the lazyboy recliners are all factors in the living room. i'm using a a well shaded small desk halogen lamp for keyboard lighting, a wallmounted pair of 3 way swingout 250w threeways to my left for wife reading the newspaper; and a 300w quartz halogen torchiere floorlamp with dimmer on my right for general illumination or my reading a magazine. in the other corner of the 12x19 living room is a 39w double d flourescent dimmable torchiere but it's a cool white for energy saving general illumination, but not bright enough for reading. the halogens are a nice warm welcoming light like the sun. if you pick cool white flourescents at 6100k by mistake instead of nice warm white flourescents at 2700k you may feel less comfortable. when you hit age

40 and reading glasses prescriptions, we found it may be easier to change to a comfortable font and read the newspaper online with the computer at a comfortable no glasses needed distance. most cfl flourescent twist bulbs are not for enclosures. i can't see your ceiling cans, they probably trap heat, but i would expect you would need to consider reading the fine print before simply burning out by overheating a bunch of new 42 watt in and 170 watt out screw-in compact flourescent lamps. on those dimmable floor lamp torchieres you wand a solid reflector shade not perforated or translucent glass or it reflects onto the tv.
Reply to
buffalobill

Compact fluorescents are a good idea. However, keep in mind some little issues that they can have, especially in recessed ceiling fixtures.

A 23 watt compact fluorescent produces (when things are going well) more light than a 75 watt standard incandescent or about as much light as a longlife 100 watt one.

You may think that a 23 watt compact fluorescent produces slightly less than 1/3 as much heat as a 75 watt incandesxcent does. True, in terms of BTUs of heat in the room. Worse when it comes to heat in the fixture. About 50-60% of the heat output of an incandescent is radiant, which is heat that materializes in the room (or the building) but not in the fixture. Meanwhile, compact fluorescents are about 80% efficient at producing non-radiant heat (the other 20% is light, mainly specific wavelengths selected to be useful for human vision).

A 23 watt compact fluorescent heats up a fixture a little more than a 40 watt incandescent does.

Sounds good so far? Yes, good for any fixture rated for as low as 60 watt maximum incandescent... Yes, a fixture rated for 60 watt incandescent should be safe with compact fluorescents up to 26 watts.

But there is another little bugaboo... Compact fluorescents largely do not take heat well. They may produce less light and/or have a color change and/or have a decrease in color rendering index, and worse still suffer reduced life expectancy if they are used in small enclosed fixtures or in recessed ceiling fixtures or other "downlight" fixtures.

Now for some guidelines:

Most compact fluorescents 19 watts or less mostly do reasonably well in most small enclosed fixtures and most downlights. Light output and life expectancy may well be significantly impaired, but usually not so badly as to make compact fluorescents not worthwhile.

In general, compact fluorescents of the specific wattage of 23 watts tend to be not much worse. In my experience, 24 watts fares worse, as well as 20 watt spirals.

Philips also makes SLS series compact fluorescents specifically rated for use in recessed ceiling fixtures. These are the 15, 20 and non-dimmable 23 watt one, and *not* the dimmable 23 watt one nor the 25 watt one. The 15 and 20 watt one are even available with snap-on reflectors of R30 and R40 sizes.

I have also noted the Feit Electric one of 18 or 19 watts, which is a spiral in an reflectorized outer bulb. I saw this one at Home Depot. Although my experience with this one is low, I have not heard complaints about it.

By and large, do not use screw-in compact fluorescents of more than 23 watts in recessed ceiling fixtures, other downlights, nor in small enclosed fixtures. Preferably use there Philips SLS non-dimmable 23 watts or less, or other compact fluorescents 19 watts or less (although 23 watt spirals may fare reasonably well).

In recessed ceiling fixtures, also try to use ones with reflectors or reflectorized outer bulbs.

Now another thing: If you put compact fluorescents in a single row of ceiling downlights, the light will probably spread out more than if you used incandescent floodlights. This could cause the compact fluorescents to appear uselessly weak. This is not as much a problem with multiple rows of ceiling downlights. When you have recessed ceiling fixtures all over the ceiling and change the bulbs to ones whose beams spread out more, what matters more then is total light output. The problem here is when a single row of downlights have their bulbs changed to ones that have their light spread out more.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

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